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NOT YOUR USUAL SUSPECTS

A group blog featuring an international array of killer mystery, suspense, and romantic suspense writers. With premises and story lines different from your run-of-the-mill whodunits, we tend to write outside the box. We blog several times a week on all topics relating to romantic suspense and mystery, our writing, and our readers. We welcome all comments and often have guest bloggers. All our authors can be contacted separately, too, using their own social media links.

We find our genre delightfully, dangerously, and deliciously exciting - join us here, if you do too!

Monday, March 27, 2017

The Conference Crash

Most of us go to a conference every now and then, if not
regularly. We pack, sort what we need, anticipate seeing old (or making new)
friends and in general hope we haven’t forgotten anything important once we’re
there.

This past weekend I attended the Cal Dreamin’ Conference in
Southern California. (Brea, to be exact. It’s worth noting that this conference
is not every year, but every OTHER year.) I remember the first time I attended,
which also happened to be its inaugural year. Truly, it was one of the best conferences
I’d ever attended. Unfortunately, I missed its second year due to a scheduling
conflict. I was happy to be back and not only give my new workshop on body
language, but also participate in Barbara Vey’s Reader Appreciation Event,
California Readin’. There’s nothing like getting hundreds of readers together
with some of their favorite authors. It makes for lots of laughing,
story-telling and general fun. I’ll admit to enjoying another aspect of the
event. My sister and good friend were able to come and it was fun to share a
few hours with them while wearing my work shoes (so to speak). They’ve known me
before I began writing, so it was a chance for them to see me in my author world. (Oops, I digressed.)

Back to the conference. I think this conference will always
be one of my favorites, not only because it’s local (and I don’t have to deal
with an airport/airplane), but because of the quality of the event. It might be
relatively new and on the smaller side, but it’s definitely mighty. The workshops were plentiful and excellent with top-notch speakers and authors alike.

Here’s a
shot of some of my favorite authors in my local chapter, and next is the table (at the reader event) I co-hosted with RITA nominated author,
HelenKay Dimon.

Has anyone here participated in a Barbara Vey Reader event? They are something else. I've never seen so many voracious readers in one place. Although it's not hard to see why the event attracts so many people. The authors are very generous in their swag and appreciation of the readers.

As usual, I arrived home wiped out and also invigorated,
ready to tackle my WIP with new insight and high hopes for a miracle that I can
actually finish this book. Haha.

So I’m curious, what kind of conference do you prefer?
Bigger ones like the RWA National and RT or the smaller regional ones that might
be a little more low key? Any local conferences you can recommend for the rest of us? Let me know!

Have a happy Monday!
(And P.S. Work has me out of cell phone range until tonight when I get home, but I will be responding to all comments as usual. Thank you!)

3 comments:

Thank you for sharing your experience! I've never attended a Barbara Vey reader event, but I've heard they're wonderful. How fun for the readers to go home with all of that swag. :D

I now prefer the bigger conferences because of their variety and bigger reader/signing events, but I used to prefer the smaller/regional ones. I had more opportunity to connect, it seemed, with both writers and readers. And while I was still in the early stages of learning the craft, I liked having a smaller, less intimidating environment. ;)

That was an amazing event and we readers greatly enjoyed interacting with authors and appreciated those fantastic gift baskets. Barbara is quite a character and definitely provided an experience that will be treasured. Thank you all for your generosity as well as the fun games and yummy desserts!